THE PENETRATION AND IMPACT OF BIM IMPLEMENTATION IN THE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY IN LEBANON A Thesis presented to The Faculty of Engineering At Notre Dame University-Louaize In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Masters of Science in Civil Engineering By JOSEPH MATAR May 2019
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THE PENETRATION AND IMPACT OF BIM
IMPLEMENTATION IN THE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY IN
LEBANON
A Thesis
presented to
The Faculty of Engineering
At Notre Dame University-Louaize
In Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree of
Masters of Science in Civil Engineering
By
JOSEPH MATAR
May 2019
iii
Acknowledgments
First, I would like to show my deepest gratitude to my thesis advisor, Dr. Dima Jawad, of the
School of Engineering, at Notre Dame University – Louaize. Dr. Jawad delivered tremendous
guidance, and unremitting reassurances throughout the duration of the thesis.
I would also like to express my deepest appreciation to Dr. Talal Salem and Dr. Naji Khoury, my
thesis committee members, who always gave me proper directions throughout the proposal and
thesis defense stages.
My sincere appreciation goes to all who helped in sending out the surveys in Lebanon and in the
MENA region, in addition to Eng. Toni Mousallem, owner of BIM-ME, for spending the time
with me to provide all numbers and data needed to complete this study.
Finally, my profound gratitude goes to my wife, my family; my parents, and brother for their
unfailing support and for always encouraging me throughout my entire education and especially
in the course of researching and writing this dissertation.
This achievement would not have been attainable without them. Thank you.
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Contents
Acknowledgments.......................................................................................................................... iii
Contents ......................................................................................................................................... iv
List of Figures ................................................................................................................................ vi
List of Tables ................................................................................................................................ vii
Abstract .......................................................................................................................................... ix
Appendix F : Statistical Tests Results ........................................................................................ 107
Appendix G : Sample BOQ produced by Revit .......................................................................... 114
Works Cited ................................................................................................................................ 115
vi
List of Figures
Figure 1: Development of BIM definition Latiffi et al. (2014) ...................................................... 4 Figure 2: Transition of Information Sources Due to BIM (Baoping, 2011) ................................... 6 Figure 3: Stages of a construction project....................................................................................... 9 Figure 4: Quantitative Analysis Framework (Azzam, 2016) ........................................................ 19
Figure 5: BIM Penetration Rates in Different countries (Mcgraw Hill Construction, 2016) ....... 40 Figure 6: Uses of BIM (Awwad & Ammoury, 2013) ................................................................... 41 Figure 7: BIM Adoption in Lebanon vs MENA ........................................................................... 52 Figure 8: Percentage of projects using BIM in Lebanon vs MENA ............................................. 53 Figure 9: Utilized BIM Function in Lebanon vs MENA .............................................................. 55
Figure 10: Perspective of Halat 3824 project ............................................................................... 67 Figure 11: Perspective of Parc 11 project, Block D ...................................................................... 70
Figure 12: 3D view of Parc 11, Block D ...................................................................................... 72
Figure 13: East Elevation .............................................................................................................. 72 Figure 14: Camera view of apartment’s interior living room ....................................................... 73 Figure 15: Interior view of a room with furniture ......................................................................... 73
Figure 16: Payback of Adopting BIM per project in Small and Medium offices ......................... 76 Figure 17: Total amount in USD for the largest project executed within the companies
interviewed .................................................................................................................................. 100 Figure 18: Percentage of projects using BIM and delivered on time ......................................... 101 Figure 19: Bar graph for projects using BIM and delivered on time .......................................... 104
Figure 21: Windows Schedule .................................................................................................... 114
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List of Tables
Table 1: Study Variables ............................................................................................................... 18 Table 2: BIM Benefits in the AEC Industry in Jordan (Matarneh & Hamed, 2017) .................... 25 Table 3: Survey Response ............................................................................................................. 45 Table 4: Survey Respondents' Profile ........................................................................................... 46
Table 5: Pearson’s Correlation of the Survey ............................................................................... 57 Table 6: Relation between BIM Adoption and Savings in Cost and Time ................................... 57 Table 7: R value of using BIM in projects .................................................................................... 58 Table 8: Respondents' Perspective of BIM Efficiency ................................................................. 60 Table 9: Statistics of BIM application Level ............................................................................... 60
Table 10: Statistics of BIM application purpose in BIM implemented projects .......................... 61 Table 11: BIM-ME Courses on BIM (Revit) ................................................................................ 63
Table 13: Parc 11, Block D, Budget Cover Sheet......................................................................... 69 Table 14: THe Cost of BIM Adoption in Small and Medium Engineering Offices .............. Error!
Bookmark not defined. Table 15: Direct Monetary Benefits of Adopting BIM in a Small Office per Project .................. 75 Table 16: Direct Monetary Benefits of Adopting BIM in a Medium Office per Project ............. 75
Table 17: Firm’s Function using BIM in Lebanon ....................................................................... 96 Table 18: Firm’s Function using BIM in MENA ......................................................................... 96 Table 19: Firm Function Statistics ................................................................................................ 96
Table 20: Post at Company Distribution Statistics ....................................................................... 97
Table 21: Number of Employees Distribution Statistics .............................................................. 97
Table 22: Country of Operation Distribution Statistics ................................................................ 98 Table 23: Post at Company Statistics – Lebanon.......................................................................... 99
Table 24: Number of Employees per company statistics - Lebanon .......................................... 100 Table 25: Percent of projects using BIM .................................................................................... 101 Table 26: Number of projects using BIM and delivered on time ............................................... 102
Table 27: How much money was used to implement BIM on this project? ............................... 102 Table 28: Percent of respondents by country .............................................................................. 103
Table 29: Number of employees per company ........................................................................... 103 Table 30: Number of projects delivered on time ........................................................................ 104 Table 31: Money needed to implement BIM .............................................................................. 105
Table 32: Company Size VS BIM usage in MENA region ........................................................ 105
Table 33: Company Size VS BIM usage in Lebanon ................................................................. 106 Table 34: Was the largest project executed at your company delivered on time (using BIM)? VS
Was BIM used in the project ...................................................................................................... 108
Table 35: Chi-Square Tests for project delivery on time using BIM ......................................... 108 Table 36: Chi-Square Tests for project delivery within budget using BIM .............................. 108 Table 37: Is it efficient for construction projects to move from document based to model based
delivery of design? VS Was BIM used in the project ................................................................. 109
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Table 38: Chi-Square Tests for the efficiency to move from document based to model based
delivery of design ........................................................................................................................ 109
Table 39: Spearman Correlation for delivery of project on time VS Using BIM....................... 110 Table 40: Spearman Correlation for number of RFI’s VS Using BIM....................................... 110 Table 41: Spearman Correlation for project’s delivery within budget VS Using BIM .............. 111 Table 42: Multi-collinearity tests and Unstandardized Coeficients Results ............................... 112 Table 43: ANOVA results from Regression Analysis ................................................................ 113
Table 44: R-values from Regression Analysis ............................................................................ 113
ix
Abstract
Purpose – The topic of this thesis focuses on the Lebanese Construction Industry as it has been
lagging in terms of technological advancements in the last few years. The purpose of this thesis
is to find out the impact of technological advancements, specifically Building Information
Management and Modeling, on the Lebanese Construction Industry, its penetration in the market
in Lebanon in comparison to the MENA region, in addition to estimating the payback period of
investments in BIM for small and medium engineering consultancy offices.
Design/methodology/approach-
Philosophic Approach and Reasoning Technique:
The Post-Positivism approach is used whereas the reasoning technique will be a combination of
induction and deduction, a hypothetic-deductive method.
Sampling and Population:
The population target includes several types of companies involved in the construction field,
ranging from project management companies, design and supervision companies, contractors,
and real estate development companies. It also targets various countries of operation in the
MENA region, which is our focus in this research.
Sampling Procedure:
The sampling procedure is the stratified Random Sampling, because the engineering companies
are divided between countries, and a random sample will be chosen from each country.
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Findings – The performed analysis showed that the penetration rate of BIM in Lebanon (12.5%)
is too low compared to the MENA region (84%). It was also found that the highest lack of BIM
usage occurs in small and medium engineering consultancy offices. However, the analysis
conducted proved that the payback period for BIM usage in medium engineering consultancy
offices is very quick, specifically less than a year, resulting in a very high IRR, and the
investment is returned fully from the 2nd
project, as opposed to small consultancy offices which
showed a negative investment return rate.
A solution to the low penetration rate of BIM are incentives and rules that organize the industry
in Lebanon. Governmental incentives and obligations, similar to rules issued in Emirates and
Qatar, in addition to OEA rules and obligations to project’s owners and engineering offices could
increase the penetration rate of BIM in the Lebanese Construction Industry, especially with the
proven high IRR for medium engineering consultancy offices.
Research limitations/implications – The theoretical implication of this research is mainly
testing a theory in a new environment, which is Lebanon. There is a limited number of studies
that talk about the problems and lack of technological advancements in the Lebanese
construction industry, and how this is affecting the total budget, schedule, and quality of the
project. This is why this research might be an incentive towards adopting these advancements,
because it will extend the academic debate that similar institutions have regarding this issue.
Practical implications – The practical implications of this research include discovering what is
the actual penetration rate of BIM in Lebanon compared to the MENA region. This will guide
decision makers and authorities to issue policies and incentives to regulate the BIM usage in
Lebanon. In addition, BIM benefits and profitability of its implementation and usage in projects
in the Lebanese market is calculated. The profession can use the findings from this research and
other limited researches about the Lebanese market to decide whether or not to adopt and
implement BIM usage in their projects.
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Originality/value – This value of this research is that it flags the low interest in BIM adoption in
the Lebanese Construction Industry due to the lack of research done in this area. The findings of
this thesis show the profitability of BIM adoption in medium sized projects and consultancy
offices which should pave the track for further research and adoption in the market.
Keywords – Building Information Modeling, Construction, Payback Period, Penetration Rate,
Lebanon, MENA.
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1 Introduction
The construction industry in Lebanon has been relatively in a status-quo condition
for several years. The majority of construction practices, whether in private or public
section, consist of design-bid-build arrangements where the design team delivers the
construction contract documents detailing the technical designs after coordinating with
the owner of the project. After receiving the design package, the owner solicits bidders in
order to choose the lowest bid submitted by the contractor in order to proceed with the
works. At that stage, coordination is needed between all team personnel from the owner,
to the architect, designers, MEP engineers, and contractors in order to better understand
and visualize the requirements since the delivered design drawings is merely a two
dimensional (2D) drawings representing the three dimensional (3D) image that the
designer envisions.
It is clear that the traditional practices and ways available in the construction industry is
unable to deliver the level demanded by the market and its clients considering all the
technological advances available nowadays.
Managing the information related to the constructed buildings and structure, as other
essential components of the construction domain, can be mostly аffeсted by the
technological advances in the market whether in its operation, tools, and methods. The
digitization and automation of building information is a major concern for all the
businesses wishing to make their construction management more coherent and efficient.
Therefore, in order to adapt to the changes nearby, several companies started
computerizing building information management through Building Information Modeling
(BIM) using specialized developed software which ensures the automation of
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management of tasks. BIM software packages are more and more being considered by
large project management and engineering consultant companies in order to better
organize, process, and share technical information of the project such as the new US
embassy project in Awkar and ABC Verdun Mall in Beirut.
The thesis proposes conducting a study on the penetration and impact of BIM
implementation in the Lebanese construction market compared to the MENA market. The
study is two folds:
The first will investigate the enablers and impediments to using BIM according
the perspective of key players in the Architecture, Engineering, Construction and
Operation (AECO) industry in addition to questionnaires sent to different
engineering professions in order to have a detailed study about BIM in the area.
The second fold is a comparative analysis between the traditional approach and
the novel BIM approach (using REVIT software) to conduct quantity take off and
cost estimation.
After this section, the thesis introduces the research background, after the research
questions and objectives are stated, followed by the research approach. A comprehensive
literature review is then presented. The results and findings of the research are
summarized in section 6. At the end the conclusions and some recommendations are
stated.
3
2 Research Background
2.1 Development of BIM
Although the construction industry is one of the biggest worldwide, it is not yet
developed as other industries considering the technological advancements taking place
and still lags in terms of productivity, quality, sustainability, etc. In other industries, the
main developments happened due to the use of information technology, increase in
competition due to globalization, and changes in organizational structures. The
construction industry still has relatively marginal usage for information technology which
is causing a negative impact on the advancement of productivity. The National Research
Council (NRC) in the US conducted studies in 2004 in order to provide a strategy for
increasing productivity, and findings of the study conducted found that BIM is the most
promising solution to achieve the above. (Matarneh & Hamed, 2017)
The concept of BIM dates back to the year of 1962 when Douglas C. Englebart defined
what a future architect should be in his paper ―Augmenting Human Intellect‖. In addition,
several design researchers such as Herbert Simon, Ian McHarg, and Nicholas Negroponte
had an impact on the development of BIM concept.
In 1963, several solid modeling programs began to appear. One of the first projects to
create a building database was the Building Description System (BDS) which was the
first software to contain individual library elements that can be added to a model. This
project was designed by Charles Eastman, an architect at Berkley University, who
criticized hard copy drawings due to their tendency to decay over time and fail to
represent the building as renovations occur. Due to the hard and primitive nature of BDS,
few architects were able to work with it and no projects were realized using this software.
4
Eastman’s next project, known as GLIDE, was created in 1977 and included most of the
functions of a modern BIM platform.
By 1980, several systems using this concept were developed in England and were applied
to construction projects, such as, but not limited to, GDS, EdCAAD, Cedar, Reflex, etc…
In 1988, the Center for Integrated Facility Engineering (CIFE) was founded at Stanford
University by Paul Teicholz. This helped in creating a foundation for students and
industry collaborations to develop what is known as four-dimensional building models
with time being the fourth dimension. While technological advances were rapidly
increasing in the US, Leonid Raiz and Gabor Bojar, two programming geniuses from the
Soviet Block, would end up defining the BIM market as it is known today. These two
geniuses are the founders of the Revit and ArchiCAD programs, with ArchiCAD being
considered the first BIM software that was made available on a personal computer.
(Quirk, 2012)
Figure 1: Development of BIM definition Latiffi et al. (2014)
5
BIM is the modern idea of digital modeling. It is one of many promising developments in
the construction industry. BIM is an innovative and very advanced process of analyzing
and managing construction and building data throughout the lifecycle of a certain project.
Nowadays, many developers are requesting BIM implementation in their projects during
all pre-construction, construction and post construction phases. All project team members
are investing in BIM trainings and implementation in order to keep up with the mix of
technology in the traditional construction methods.
The BIM handbook describes BIM as ―a computer aided modelling technology for
managing and generating building information, with the related processes of producing,
communicating, and analyzing building information models.‖ (Eastman, Chuck,
Tiecholz, Sacks, & Liston, 2008)
Thompson and Miner defines BIM in very relevant and brief sentence claiming that if all
needed data of a certain project can be available in a single system, the final product can
be executed fully in a virtual environment. Adding to that the dimensions of time and
costs enables easy cost-time benefit analysis of different options almost instantaneously
(Thompson & Miner, 2007).
On the other hand, Fernandez states that BIM supplies the users with accurate project
data in which all the functions needed to model a building and generate a virtual view of
it are incorporated. BIM will cause a major change in the way business is dealt with in
the AEC industry. (Fernandes, 2013)
The National BIM Standards in the United States views BIM as a ―three dimensional
digital representation of building and its intrinsic characteristics. It is made of intelligent
building components which includes data attributes and parametric rules for each object.
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For instance, a door of a certain material and dimensions is parametrically related and
hosted by a wall. Furthermore, BIM provides consistent and coordinated views and
representations of the digital model including reliable data for each view. This saves a lot
of designer’s time since each view is coordinated through the built-in intelligence of the
model.‖ (National Institute of Building Sciences, The National BIM Standard-United
States, 2010)
Figure 2: Transition of Information Sources Due to BIM (Baoping, 2011)
Due to BIM, fundamental changes in communications, deliverables, implementations,
etc.… needs to take place due to the transition of information sources as seen in Figure 2.
Nowadays, BIM is mainly promoted by Autodesk through the program Revit. Once
Autodesk gained control over such type of software, everyone confirmed that the BIM
era is about to start. Autodesk defines BIM as ―a building design and documentation
methodology characterized by the creation and use of coordinated, internally consistent
computable information about a building project in design and construction.‖
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Since there is no single definition to be adopted concerning BIM, it would also help to
better understand this topic if what is NOT considered as BIM can be defined. Fernandez
defines BIM as not being the following:
― Models that contain 3D data only and no object attributes‖
― Models with no support of behavior‖
― Models that are composed by multiple 2D CAD reference files that must be
combined to define the building‖
― Models that allow changes to dimensions in one view that are not automatically
reflected in other views‖
― BIM is not CAD, BIM is not 3D, BIM is not application oriented‖
― BIM is not a single building model or database, it actually is a series of
interconnected models and databases creating relationships with each other and
allowing information to be extracted and shared‖
― BIM is not Revit, AutoCAD, or Tekla, these are BIM design tools‖
―BIM is not a piece of software. It is not a 3D model. It is not a project phase.
However, it can be any or all of these.‖ (Fernandes, 2013)
BIM also creates 4D models referred to as time estimation model. Linkage of the model
to the time plan will make it possible to graphically visualize the project, especially for
the stakeholders and owners. This will also help in early detection of conflicts and errors.
4D models also help in logistics.
BIM can also create five dimensions (5D) models with money being the 5th dimension.
The objects in 3D will have material price lists connected to them. This will enable the
view of a life cycle costing system that can be presented to the owner. It can show the
8
owner all the savings and operational costs for the whole life of the building. It will also
enable accurate cost estimations at any point in the design phase.
2.2 Project, Project Manager, and Project Management
In addition to discussing the development of BIM, it is also essential to introduce
few basic principles in project management. The following paragraphs discusses the
stages of a project, what constitute a project according to the Project Management
Institute (PMI), gives a general view about a project manager, and how a project is
managed in the construction industry.
PMI defines project as ―a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product,
service or result. It has a defined beginning and end in time, and therefore defined scope
and resources. It is not a routine operation, but a specific set of operations designed to
accomplish a singular goal. So a project team often includes people who do not usually
work together – sometimes from different organizations and across multiple
geographies.‖
A standard project usually is made up of four phases: initiation, planning,
implementation, and closure. These phases are known as the project’s life cycle.
During the initiation phase, a certain need is identified and the appropriate response
mentioning several solutions is documented. During this stage, the best solution is
identified based on a certain feasibility study, and the project’s team starts to form with
the project manager being the head of the team. Further to that, the planning phase starts.
In that phase, the project’s solution is developed with every detail being studied to meet
the primary objective. The project manager studies the project’s budget by providing cost
estimates for labor, equipment, and material. At the end of this phase, a quality plan is
9
documented in order to gain the customer’s acceptance and the project is ready to be
executed. The third phase is the execution phase during which the project is put on track.
Progress is always monitored and the project manager should always keep the project on
track despite all the problems that may arouse. Once all the deliverables have been
completed and has gained the customer’s satisfaction, the project is ready for closure.
The final phase is the closure phase. During this phase, the project is handed over to the
customer, documentations are submitted to the owners, supplier’s contracts are
terminated, project resources are released, and the stakeholders’ are advised of the project
closure. (Watt, N.D.)
Construction projects follow the same path. As it is known and as seen in the figure 3, a
construction project consists of the following phases: design, bidding, pre-construction,
procurement, construction, and post construction.
Figure 3: Stages of a construction project
PMI also defines project management as ―the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and
techniques to project activities to meet the project requirements.‖
10
The PM defines the project goal and scope where he transfers the client’s ideas and
request to the project team. Further to that, he must secure the needed human resources
with the specific competence to complete the project. Moreover, with his experience, a
PM must be able to foresee the project’s risks and try to avoid them as much as possible;
however, when risks occur, he should take corrective action to the put the project back on
track. Last but not least, the project manager manages and constantly updates the
schedule and the time. (TenStep, 2010)
Mygard considers the PM as the chairman of the project since he oversees all project
meetings, as the team leader since he leads all the project teams to well function, as the
trouble shooter since he solves all conflicts and disputes among the project members, and
finally as a representative for both parties of the project, the client and the project team.
(Mygard, 2009)
3 Research Questions and Objectives
The main research questions of the proposed thesis are:
Where does BIM stand in terms of its application in the Lebanese market?
What is its penetration rate compared to other countries in the MENA region?
How can BIM impact medium-size private projects at the design stage in the context
of the Lebanese market? And as a result,
o What are the advantages of integrating BIM in such projects?
o How profitable is it to use BIM on a project?
o How can BIM affect the construction budget and timeline?
o What problems can be avoided by using BIM?
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As such, the objectives of the thesis are set as two-pronged:
The first objective is to investigate the status of adoption of BIM in Lebanon in
comparison to the MENA region. As such, the thesis aims at identifying the potential
benefits of using BIM from the perspective of practitioners in these regions; in specific,
the research looks into the impacts of using BIM on time and cost of projects during the
design-construction phases only. The results of study are analyzed to underline what
could be done to foster the adoption of BIM in the AEC industry in Lebanon.
The second objective is to determine the financial feasibility of adopting BIM by small to
medium sized civil engineering consultancy firms in Lebanon. Based on a quick market
survey and the help of owners of several consultancy firms in Lebanon, small
consultancy firms are considered as companies performing up to 6 small projects
annually with budgets of projects ranging up to 2 million USD each, while medium sized
consultancy firms are considered as companies performing up to 4 medium sized projects
annually with budgets of projects ranging up to 12 million USD each. The financial
feasibility is tested using the payback period for adopting BIM in the firm practice. This
objective is set forth as the researchers believe that the full adoption of BIM in the
Lebanese AEC industry can only be achieved when small to medium consultancy firms
adopt the BIM.
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4 Research Approach
The research approach followed in this thesis varies based on its objective: an
exploration tactic and testing tactic. Combining the results of both parts, the exploration
part and the testing part, will help in drawing the conclusions needed in order to assess
the penetration rate of BIM in the Lebanese market in addition to its effect on the budget,
quality, and schedule of the project. This section presents the approach for the first
objective and second objective separately.
4.1 Study Methodology for BIM Implementation in Lebanese Market
This section will address the methodology used for this research study before
analyzing the field work that is intended to test the impact of BIM on the Lebanese
Construction Industry in practice.
The study approach in this thesis is mixed between exploration and testing; a hybrid way
between deduction and induction, the hypothetic-deductive method.
The exploration part is done using two methods:
1) Conducting web-based surveys sent to key personnel working at AECO
companies operating in Lebanon and in the Middle East region. The survey
targets various engineering sectors, various engineering firms and companies,
different scope of works, several MENA countries, and several small scales to
large scale projects in order to have accurate results towards the penetration rates
and benefits of using BIM.
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2) Conducting one-on-one interviews with managerial level employees in well
reputed companies in the region that are directly involved in BIM
implementation.
3) One-on-one interview is conducted with the owner of one of the largest BIM
centers in Lebanon. BIM-ME is an Autodesk authorized training center, a
consulting services partner, and a sister company to SEEDS (sustainable energy
and environment design solutions). The interview will address detailed questions
related to BIM penetration rates, BIM training sessions, development and support
in Lebanon and in the MENA region in order to help find the ROI on using BIM
in small to medium scale projects.
4.1.1 Study Philosophical Approach
Three principal philosophical approaches are discussed when conducting exploration
studies, which are:
- Positivism: Researchers that use positivism base their investigation on the actual
reality. They believe that any research must be tested by direct measurements in
order to be successful.
- Post-Positivism: Those researchers use various techniques such as the
triangulation method the collect data and reach a better view on reality. They try
to be as much objective as they can.
- Phenomenological Philosophy: This philosophy is in opposition with the previous
two theories. It is totally subjective and focuses on the perspective of stuff as a
substitute to simply focusing on things as they are. (Dudovskiy, 2018)
14
Post-positivism is used in this research as the results collected from the questionnaires
will be analyzed to determine the penetration rate of BIM in the Lebanese market as
compared to that in the MENA and EMEA region. In addition, statistical values will be
deducted in order to find correlations between the various topics discussed in the
questionnaire.
4.1.2 Study Design
In order to be able to draw a reliable conclusion, two approaches are taken into
consideration: induction and deduction.
Ghauri and Gronhaug differentiate between both ways as follows:
a) Induction draws general conclusion from empirical observations. It starts with
observations, progresses to findings, and finally reaches a theory. Theory is the
final result of the inductive method and it is associated with the qualitative
research method which represents the idea of discovering something that cannot
be established in advance. Holme and Solvang claims that in a qualitative study, a
large amount of info is collected from a small sample size from which
conclusions can be drawn. (Holme & Solvang, 1997)
b) Deduction results in conclusions based on logic. Existing knowledge is taken by
the researcher to build his hypothesis which is studied through empirical studies
to accept it or reject it. It is associated with the quantitative research. (Ghauri &
Gronhaug, 2010)
Both methods will be used in this thesis as conclusions are drawn based on logic from
quantitative research and a theory will be reached from observations and findings.
15
4.1.3 Sampling and Population
The population will target several types of companies involved in the AEC industry,
ranging from project management companies, passing by design and supervision
companies, contractors, and real estate development companies. It will target various
countries of operation such as Lebanon, KSA, UAE, Nigeria, etc… especially countries
located in the MENA region, which is our focus in this research. The targeted number of
responses is around 100 people, where part of the questionnaire was delivered via a link
online to the population living outside Lebanon, and some were delivered by hand in
Lebanon. The sample for this research also targeted companies varying between small
sized engineering offices to large sized engineering companies operating in the market.
Individuals with no direct relation to our topic were disregarded from the study, such as
non-skilled laborers on site, skilled laborers on site, small sized subcontracting
companies working under the umbrella of main subcontractors and under their
supervision, or foreign subcontractors that cannot have a background or are far away
from using BIM in construction.
The sampling procedure is stratified Random Sampling, because the engineering
companies are divided between countries, and a random sample will be chosen from each
country.
4.1.4 Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria
Inclusion Criteria
- Employees working project management, supervision, design, and real estate
development were chosen.
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- Employees who are BIM literate and are decision makers in their companies from
various countries were also chosen.
Exclusion Criteria
- Employees in the previously mentioned fields who do not have the required
knowledge to participate in decision making such skilled and non-skilled labors.
- Employees working with small subcontractors who follow the lead and
instructions of main contracting companies.
4.1.5 Questionnaire Design and Preparation
The Questionnaire was made up of four divisions. The first division focused on the
company’s profile, such as the country of operation, size of the firm, number of
employees in the company, and nature of work. The second division targeted the first part
of the thesis which is mainly focused on the three pillars of project management (time,
budget, quality) in projects not following BIM, and how projects are progressing and
being handed over versus the original budget submitted to the owner; while the third
division focused on the same points except for projects following and using BIM in order
to create a comparison between both cases. The fourth division contains detailed
questions regarding BIM implementation. Following the collection of the results, the
responses will be divided between respondents working in Lebanon against respondents
working outside Lebanon. The questionnaire’s purpose is to be able to conclude the
penetration rate in Lebanon of BIM usage compared to the MENA region while
highlighting the type and size of company. This was important in order to be able to
17
compare how large sized companies develop and progress against small and medium
sized companies.
4.1.6 Data Collection
The data collection stage was accomplished by the researcher and the distribution was
based on a previously prepared list of companies in order to prevent duplication. The on-
line surveys is done using Google survey tool and sent out via social media platforms
such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Whatsapp.
The researcher personally delivered some of the questionnaires to companies such as
employees working at DG Jones, Sakr Real Estate, BIM-ME, while the rest was collected
via online survey techniques. The results were studied using SPSS program.
4.1.7 Response Rates
Over 250 questionnaires were sent to people inside and outside Lebanon; however, the
researcher was not able to collect all the results within the requested period of time since
most of the un-collected responses came from people outside Lebanon. 105 responses
were received. The response rate was around 42% since several questionnaires were sent
to countries outside Lebanon, and the researcher did not have control over the collection.
4.1.8 Data Coding and Entry
Data and numbers from each response were entered on SPSS (Statistical Package for
Social Science). Statistical tests such as the two-sample t-test, the chi-square test,
Cronbach’s alpha, and parametric methods including ANOVA were applied in the data
analysis.
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4.1.9 Data Measurement
For the suitable system of analysis to be chosen, the degree of measurement needs to be
selected. In this study, multiple choice questions and MCQ with ranges for comparison
purposed were used.
4.1.10 Variables
The independent variable is anything that can be subjective or used like a reason; while
the dependent variable is the result of the independent variable, and therefore can be
influenced by it. Regarding this study, and the research questions that it discusses, the
dependent variable can be considered the movement from document based to model
based delivery of design and use of BIM in construction projects, while the independent
variable affecting this decision can be considered as the delivery of the project within the
allocated time, within the allocated budget, without any variation orders, and huge
number of request for information. Table 1 illustrate these variables.
Table 1: Study Variables
4.1.11 Analysis Framework
This section shows the distributions, central tendencies, and the many tests that were
applied for the quantitative approach of this case study.
Independent Variable Dependent Variable
Number of Request for Information (RFI)
Use of BIM in construction
projects
Project Delivery on Time
Project Delivery within Allocated Budget
Cost of Variation Orders
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The researcher used quantitative data analysis techniques. This data analysis was
conducted using SPSS program.
Concerning the Chi-square test, when the p-value is less than or equal to the level of
significance α= 0.05, then the null hypothesis will be rejected showing that the factors of
RFIs, time, and budget are not related to using BIM in construction projects.